How does the Earth’s mass increase in a closed system? It is true that the earth gains mass by collecting space dust with its gravity, but this is hardly due to global warming.
Simple! It's inhabitants keep eating junk food.
It is true that the earth gains mass by collecting space dust with its gravity, but this is hardly due to global warming.
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How does the atmosphere “thicken” as it warms, doesn’t air expand as it warms? It seems to me that warmer air would be thinner, not thicker.
Mass, no. Density, on the other hand.......
Silly, it’s the atmosphere which gains mass. Which, being in a closed system as you point out, can only come from the earth. So a lighter earth will spin faster, exactly canceling the extra drag from the thicker atmosphere, so it’ll actually spin precisely the same!
It's not a closed system...except to leftists who believe a zero sum game applies to everything...economics and climate in particular.
The issue isn't an increase in mass, but a shift in mass from closer to the axis to farther from the axis. Taking material from the Earth's crust and putting it in the atmosphere could, in theory, affect its rotational velocity.
(ObDisclaimer: I am not a physicist, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and if I'm talking about this stuff at the most elementary level, it's only because I understand it at the most elementary level.)
Every minute you drive a car or a bicycle, you're losing mass at the outer edge of the rotation and shifting the rim-to-axis ratio. And yet they keep spinning. And the speedometer remains pretty accurate. The dash panel on my Chrysler can't tell my my linear velocity in micrometers per nanosecond, but it's plenty accurate for my needs.
If your cultural practices are based on beginning at sunset, which is an imprecise time stamp at best, then a small shift in when the sun sets won't make any difference.
You know how when you spin on a bar stool, and then stick out your hands or legs, you spin slower, and when you retract them you spin faster?
No, I’m not sure what that has to do with anything. Just a fun fact.
That's a good point. However, if you move the mass from a center to an outer radial point, rotation of a body will slow in order to preserve angular momentum. Think about a spinning ice skater who moves her arms outward to slow down and inward to speed up. Even so, the effect of atmospheric mass increase would be inconsequential when compared to the rotation of the massive nickel-iron core of the earth.